Indoor Hammocking

Hammocks are usually reserved for the out-of-doors. A few trees and a hammock is a combination as classic as burgers and fries. But feeling like you need trees to enjoy a hammock is an impulse that’s depriving you of countless hours of carefree slingin’. It’s time to bring your hammock indoors, it’s time to ensure that you’ve got a hammock throughout your day, no matter the season, weather, or room.

Uses

Beyond the basic selfish motives of never ending relaxation, indoor hammocks are actually very beneficial. They make extremely good makeshift guest beds, particularly because they are so easy to setup and no one you want to be friends with will ever turn down the chance to sleep in a hammock. When not used for sleeping, you can use your hammock to store extra pillows, blankets, clothes, or other soft things. They are not good for cutlery, liquids, or animals.

Placement

Finding a place to put your hammock is much easier than you might think, especially if you don’t need to anchor and can wrap straps around say, a column or other sturdy structure. In case you do need to drill in an anchor, find studs in walls or support beams that you can easily drill into. Because anchor points are so easy to put in and so unobtrusive, there’s no reason why you can’t have multiple possible hammocking areas. Get a setup in the living room to watch TV. Put one in the family room for guest beds. Put one on the porch or in the sun room for a hybrid, indoor-outdoor solution. The point is, you can place your hammock just about anywhere, so why not do exactly that?

Setup

You’ll want to start with a stud-finder to make sure that you’re placing your anchor points in something sturdier than straight drywall or you’re hammock session will be very short lived. The best hardware you can use is ENO’s own indoor hammock hanging kit. But if you don’t have one handy or can’t wait, an eye screw will work as a substitute in a pinch. Once you’ve located your studs, sink your ENO hardware or heavy eye bolt into the wall. To these bolts you can use your normal hammock straps to hang your hammock. Careful of metal on metal connections though (i.e. Carabiners directly onto the metal anchor,) it will prematurely cause your biner to wear and increase the chances of breakage.

Storage

When not in use, you can easily unclip your hammock and store it. The anchor points will stay in the wall, but they can be hidden so your indoor hammock leaves no evidence behind. Place a decorative mask over the clip or hang a pot of flowers from it, anything to make your setup more versatile and more valuable. Though the best thing to do is simply leave the hammock up.